Republicans: This President Thing

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"Phooey." And from Rocky's own Northeastern neighborhood came one of the most wrathful public lashings in memory. In Connecticut, once regarded as a hands-down Rockefeller state, onetime U.S. Senator Prescott Bush, a moderate Republican, delivered the commencement address at Greenwich's Rosemary Hall, a school for girls from upper-income families. Said Bush: "Have we come to the point in our life as a nation where the Governor of a great stat-one who perhaps aspires to the nomination for President of the United States-can desert a good wife, mother of his grown children, divorce her, then persuade a young mother of four youngsters to abandon her husband and their four children and marry the Governor?

"Have we come to the point where one of the two great political parties will confer upon such a one its highest honor and greatest responsibility? I venture to hope not. What would Abraham Lincoln think of such a chain of events?

"Have our standards shifted so much that the American people will approve such a chain of events? I venture to hope not ... It will depend on whether our people are ready to say 'phooey' to the sanctity of the American home and the American family. Are we ready to say goodbye to the solemn pledge 'To have and to hold until death do us part'? Young ladies, I hope not, for your sake."

Many sophisticated political observers argue that this sort of feeling about Rockefeller has already reached its crest. They believe that time, and public evidences of the fact that Rocky and Happy are two nice people who happen to be deeply in love, will cause the whole issue to evaporate. New York's Thomas E. Dewey, for one, greeted the Rockefellers warmly at a Republican reception last week, and said: "I wish them long lives, great happiness and great success for many years." Rockefeller, insisted Dewey, is still "the logical nominee." Perhaps so. But in the meanwhile, Republicans can hardly be blamed for casting their gaze around the rest of the political horizon.

George? One place they look toward is Michigan, where Governor George Romney, 55, appears to be a Republican of great determination, ability, and integrity. Unseating a Democrat in 1962 after 14 years of unbroken Democratic rule, Romney inherited an all but bankrupt state. Since then, he has had a little bit of luck: the auto industry is booming and, as a result, increased state tax revenues have begun to move Michigan out of the deep red.

But George Romney knows as well as anyone that Michigan cannot permanently depend on auto-industry prosperity, that what is really needed is a broad program of state fiscal reform. Romney did not present such a program to his first legislative session, which was brief and inconclusive. He will make his major effort next fall (although the details of what he will ask for have not yet been worked out), and upon the results may depend his national political future.